Teachers Keith and Brenda save almost £1,500

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Published:
10 March 2010
Topic:
News,Makeover

Keith and Brenda Harper came to us for a makeover because they always feel they are left short at the end of the month.

Keith and Brenda HarperThe teachers from Cardiff live in a four-bedroom semi-detached house with their two children: Bryony, 13, and Ash, who's 17.

They want to pay off more of their mortgage each month and hoped that by overhauling their household bills they could free up some cash to do so.
 
Using the comparison tools available on moneysupermarket.com we managed to save them an impressive £1,481.20.

Keith said: "I am interested to see where the savings have been made... Hopefully the advice given will be saving me money for years to come."

Read on to see how we made Keith and Brenda their savings and maybe gain some inspiration yourself.

Credit card - saving of £460

Keith has two credit cards. One is a low rate deal with Barclaycard that has the remnants of a Christmas balance that he is looking to clear.

The other card is held with MBNA and has a balance of around £3,500. The 0% period that was a benefit of the MBNA card has just come to an end, so Keith is now looking to transfer the balance to another interest-free deal.

The market-leading card for balance transfers is the Virgin Credit Card which offers 0% for balance transfers for 16 months.

Unfortunately, Keith is unable to transfer his balance to this deal as both cards are administered by MBNA. All is not lost, however, as the next best deal is with Barclaycard, which offers a 15-month 0% period for balance transfers, subject to a 2.9% handling fee.

If the balance of Keith's card was moved over to Barclaycard, he would save a total of £461.52 in interest over 12 months.

TV, broadband and phone - saving of £370

The Harpers have a bundled product with Virgin Media where their average bill comes to around £75 per month. This gives them unlimited evening and weekend calls, 20Mb unlimited broadband and an XL TV package which provides 160 television channels. 

If they moved to Sky they would pay £44 per month for the same package and save £372 over the year.

Home insurance - saving of £315

The couple currently has insurance with Prudential and is paying £416 each year to cover his family's four-bedroom semi.  Over the last five years, they've claimed once for the theft of a bicycle worth £400.

Despite that claim, the Harpers could still lower their annual premium to £101.26 with Kwik-Fit Insurance giving them a saving of £315.59 over the year.

Car insurance - saving of £230

The household has two cars and one does just 6,000 miles a year, while the other is driven for even less at just 5,000 miles. Swiftcover provides insurance for both vehicles and they pay £240 a year for their Kia Picanto and £288 for their Ford Fiesta. 

A quick search using our car insurance comparison tool shows that if they moved to different insuers, they could save £232 over the year. They could pay as little as £149.51 to Kwik-Fit Insurance for their Corsa and £152.51 to 1st Quote for their Kia Picanto.

Current account - saving of £60

Keith and Brenda are using a Lloyds TSB current account at the moment, but with an interest rate of just 0.10% they aren't really benefiting.

Although they rarely go into the red, they don't carry over much of a remaining balance either.

If they switched their account to the Halifax Reward Account, they would benefit from a credit of £5 to the account every month regardless of their balance, so long as they paid in at least £1,000 each month. That adds up to an extra £60 a year just for moving their current account.

Savings & ISA - saving of £46

The Harpers have a Pathfinder savings account with The Co-operative Bank, which is no longer available to new customers. 

At the moment, they have saved £400, but they are topping that up with an extra £100 a month as they try to save more regularly.

Unfortunately, they are not being rewarded for saving by their Pathfinder account, which is paying them a mere 0.06% - far below the Bank of England's base rate.

Norwich & Peterborough Building Society's Family Regular Saver has a regular savings account paying a market-leading rate of 5.00%.

This account is specifically aimed at families with dependant children up to the age of 16, or 18 if they are in full-time education. The rate of 5.00% is inclusive of a 3% bonus which is paid annually, but you're only allowed one withdrawal a year.

If the Harpers started saving their £100 each month into this account, they would make an extra £32.11 in interest over 12 months.

They may want to save their existing £400 balance into a tax-free cash ISA and they're still in time to make use of this year's allowance, before the new tax year begins in April.

The current market leader is the Santander Flexible ISA paying 3.50% which would add £14.00 in interest to a balance of £400.

Would you like the opportunity to see if we can make you any savings?  If so, then email makeover@moneysupermarket.com

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